7 July 2007

8 random

If I plug the word random into the search blog facility up there at the top of the page I see I’ve done variations on this meme several times already, but hey my whole blog is random, so here I go again, quite happily.

1. I’ve ended up subscribed to several magazines this year, which is unusual for me. Three I’ve arranged myself, one is a gift from my electricity supplier for ordering green electricity and the other was a gift from mum. They are Earth Garden, Yarn, Donna Hay, Home Beautiful and Australian Country Style. I leave it to you to work out which ones I bought. I rarely get time to read them anyway. I barely get to look at the weekend papers either. Sigh.

2. When I finish typing this I will make bread and a chocolate Armenian nutmeg cake. We’re having roast lamb tonight, with all the vegies I bought from the Warrandyte market this morning – celeriac, pumpkin, a turnip, parsnips and carrots. Oh and sweet potato. We’ll have the cake with cream for dessert I suspect. [We did. Yum].

3. I get really smug when I recycle something more than once. I made these bedtime wheatbags for the children (the bedrooms are unheated and two of the boys don’t like the feel of hot water bottles and I haven’t got around to making covers for them in the hope that will fix the fussiness about the rubbery feel). These used to be bedspreads, purchased from the op shop. The white one was turned into a children’s cloak like this one, and the brown one became pants (August 2005 archives, lousy photos so no direct link, those of you dedicated enough can dig through yourselves, I’m not advertising my poor photography) for Son #1. He wore the knees out, I patched them, they were eventually passed down to Son #2 who promptly wore the bum out (don’t ask). The only part of the pants unpatched and in reasonable condition were the backs of the legs, so they became wheatbags. I feel ridiculously proud of my multiple recycling efforts. Like those cultures where you eat every single bit of the animal. Or make a silk purse out of it. Eewww.

That was a really boring photograph, wasn’t it? Moving right along.

4. I’ve had people tell me that my blog is doing funky things with the sidebar overlapping the main text. Some people like it and others tell me it’s hard to read. It seems to depend on which browser one uses. I’ve had a very generous offer to fix it. Tell me, is it hard for you to read or do you quite like this quirky feature? [Vote now!]

5. I have four punnets of native grasses by my front door awaiting planting. They’ve been there since I did the last random things meme. Must plant soon! (On linking to that post I noticed I have posted a photo twice on this blog. Apologies).

6. When the kitchen was non-existent a couple of weeks ago the children built a firepit outside and we ate our leftover-from-the-bottom-of-the-freezer chicken curry under the stars by the fire. This inspired us to make it permanent. The pit needed to be moved as the children placed it a little too close to the house for comfort (as in, right under the eaves), so they spent an afternoon rebuilding it. Right in the middle of my future vegie patch. Good thing I like vegie patches with feature fireplaces smack in the middle. Would you like to see a picture? Okay then.

They even built seats. Cool huh?

7. Seven, jeez this is getting hard. You lot know everything about me already [that I’m willing to reveal to a bunch of paedophiles and axe murderers anyway*]. Alright … I had my hair cut and coloured on Thursday night. (Enthralling, isn’t it?) I deemed it necessary after a conversation in the school playground recently when I moaned about my grey hair and another mother told me she loved my hair colour because it was "almost silver-white!" I didn’t take this news with quite the same enthusiasm with which she pronounced it, and made an appointment that day. I tried not to sob on the phone.

*Oh no, not you. You’re sweet.

8. My final random is for Janet, my tagger, and her wonderful sideblog Mrs Washalot, and because I’m currently reading The Magic Faraway Tree to Son #3. This is my current method of drying the washing.

If you try this at home, be aware that five minutes is ample drying time. (Yeah. Ask me how I know. Does Preen get rid of scorch marks?)

23 comments:

You gave me a good morning laugh! Your fire pit is so appealing... and the scenery is fantastic. What a fun place to gather with the family or friends. Cook sausages and marshmallows and camp food.Joni

You know, I think you should take the offer of help. The whole text on text thing looks kind of arty (I commented elsewhere) but mostly because everything on your blog is so beautiful that bits over bits only look prettier...

BUT the professional communicator in me, alongside the chick who needs her glasses these days, is saying "get it fixed".

Oh, and my guess is that you picked Home Beautiful and Yarn and I'm going out on a limb to say the third one was Donna Hay: because you and she are devoted to exactly the same shades of chocolate and blue.

Earth Garden came from your electricity supplier and your mum gave you Country Style... Yes?

The overlap is o.k. UNLESS it overlaps something very light colored and then it is a little hard to read.

In the U.S. it's not as common to use hotwater bottles, but I took an old stuffed animal, took out his stuffing and used that to cover our hot water bottle! LOL My babies are probably to old for it now...

I succumbed to the silver-white long ago. Figured it beat wearing a track to the hairdresser, 'cause once you start you have to keep it up! Do tell how you know that five minutes is ample for drying the laundry your new way.....

I do enjoy reading these memes. It is surprising what goodies turn up!In our country Hotel, we had a huge old coal range, & it had a rack over the top, which was just the ideal airing place for dampish laundry. Cooked a dam fine roast too!

Drying clothes by fire....tick ( although not on, for same reason as you! I went out and bought an old fashioned wooden ceiling airer, that we hoist upto the rafters in the winter...everything dry by the morning).

Text thing does cover some of your images and that spoils them I think.

Yes, please fix the overlap. I thought it was just something I had done. So glad I am not that inept. And I finally found a skein of the Neopolitan Trekking like your knee socks. It is marinating in the stash.

I feel I'ver done the random things a fair few times too and I think I prefer doing the memes with questions. Although I rather like reading the random things blogs of others. Even the so called boring bits which I find endlessly fascinating.

Your firepit rocks, if you have a vegetable patch around it, you could have garden barbeques (fire restrictions permitting of course). That always makes me feel a little smug, you know food miles etc.

Oh that scorched washing brings back memories of my youth...and now I know what to do with D's chenille shorts with the worn out bits (that I made from the old bedspread...) for the kid who feels the cold. I share your thriftiness :-)

And on the overlapping thing - yes if I load you on firefox it overlaps, if I load you on Internet explorer it bumps your sidebar down to the bottom of the blog under your main text. It does mean I can't read your sidebar, especially over some of the photos.

I use the same drying method as you sometimes, although with caution as I have not only scorched socks but actually melted the nylon content in them which ruined them.Re the sidebar, the overlapping generally doesn't bother me but it does detract from the photos sometimes if it goes over them.

I watered my native grass punnets this afternoon (with my recycled water of course)- thought I better since I didn't get to them again this weekend (but I did get to other gardening stuff - post to follow).

As usual I thought I was the only one with the text overlapping issue with your blog (and thus have never mentioned it). Why I continue to think I am sooooo unique astounds me - it truly does. Anyhoo I vote for a fixer upper if you can do it :-)

I noticed the sidebar issue and found that it always obscured my own blog link (but I tried not to take it personally!)Everyone in this family loves wheat bags (they call them "magic beans") over hot water bottles but on a really cold night we do both, bottle for the toes, bag along the spine. I'm toasty just thinking about it (which is bad since the a/c is on)